Abstract
Objectives: To determine the relative contribution of intra- and inter-individual variation in the consumption of foods and nutrients.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: Two rural towns in the Miyagi Prefecture, a northeastern part of Japan.
Subjects: Fifty-nine men and sixty women.
Methods: Four 3-d food records were collected in four seasons within a year. The total variance in the consumption of 15 nutrient variables and 16 food groups was partitioned by analysis of variance into its inter- and intra-individual components, separately for men and women.
Results: The ratio of the intra- to inter-individual variance was larger than unity in 87% (13/15) of the nutrients in men and 100% (15/15) in women. The ratio was largest for retinol (52.9 in men and ∞ in women) and smallest for carbohydrates (0.8 in men and 1.5 in women). The ratio was larger than unity in 88% (14/16) of the food groups in men and 94% (15/16) in women, which was smallest for cereals (0.6 in men and 0.9 in women).
Conclusions: The results were consistent with previous western studies in that intra-individual variation was generally larger than inter-individual variation for the consumption of both foods and nutrients.
Sponsorship: This study was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (09470106) and by Health Sciences Research Grants for Research on Health Services (H10–25) from the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Japan.
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Contributors: Although the first author, Dr. Ogawa, takes the primary responsibility for this manuscript, all the co-authors made substantial contributions to the manuscript. The contribution made by each co-author is as follows: Dr. Tsubono: Active involvement of organisation of the research project, comment and edition on all sections of the manuscript; Dr. Nishino: Data collection & supervision, comment on Introduction and Method section; Dr. Watanabe: Project coordination; comment on Introduction and Method section; Dr. Ohkubo: Data collection & supervision, comment on Introduction and Method section; Dr. Watanabe: Project coordination; comment on Introduction and Method section; Dr. Nakatsuka: Data analysis, comment on Result and Discussion section; Dr. Takahashi: Measurement; comment on Result and Discussion section; Dr. Kawamura: Measurement; comment on Result and Discussion section; Dr. Tsuji: Active involvement of organisation of the research project, comment and edition on all sections of the manuscript and; Dr. Hisamichi: Planning and overseeing of the research project. All authors have read and approved the submission of this manuscript. The manuscript has not been published previously and is not being considered for publication elsewhere in whole or in part in any language.
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Ogawa, K., Tsubono, Y., Nishino, Y. et al. Inter- and Intra-individual variation of food and nutrient consumption in a rural Japanese population. Eur J Clin Nutr 53, 781–785 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600845
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600845
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